I use it as my main browser... 10.62 is quite good tbh, i still dont feel its as quick as chrome but then chrome does not have all my bookmarks and history etc. if you've got a good connection you can speed opera up abit if you go to MENU>SETTINGS>PREFERENCES then go to the advance tab then network. Change the Maximum Total Connections to 128 and some people say to increase the Maximum Connections To A Server aswell.

You can also increase the page draw time by going to the advanced tab again then go to Browsing and change redraw after 1 second to redraw instantly.

I use a mixture of Opera and Firefox in LMDE, I like Opera but I find that there are somethings on some sites that just don't work as well or at all, most problems I have is with java applets. It seems to have gotten better with 10.62 but at this point I'm not willig to have it as my only browser. I do it more than FF. I'm using it right out of the box with no tweaks and I do think it is faster than FF. I can't comment on chrome, as I have only tried it a couple of times for a very short time and I just didn't like it.

It's stable and doesn't cause any problems that I am aware of so install it and give it a try and make your own conclusions. I think it basicly comes down to personal preferences.

I've used Opera as my main browser for years. I use it for e-mail. Usenet news, RSS and of course as a browser. With every new release there's a feature I end up not being able to live without. But every time I think: Why on earth would anyone need that? And then I find myself using it a couple of months later. The latest such feature is "Thumbnail in Tabs". Sounds silly, but oh no, it isn't silly. I can't imagine browsing without seeing a miniature version of the the page on each tab. Try it, and you'll see. Another little feature like that is "copy to note". You can mark anything on a web page and create a note of it in Opera not only containing the text, but the URL it was taken from. Very handy indeed!

Finally, with Opera I can move my browser, e-mail, rss and news with a simply move of one directory. It's also great for backup.

You can of course do Firefox and add 30 extensions, most of them copies of functionality in Opera. It will work, but it will be slooooow. So don't.

Main issue is that just nobody's supporting them - I'm really sick of these "unsupported browser" messages and I want my Google Docs context menus, no matter if that's compatible with some weird w3c standard or not. Regarding speed, I don't run any technical javascript benchmarks but in everyday life Chromium is much faster for me than Opera, and sometimes I even have the impression that Firefox 3.6 is faster, too (Opera's taking unmotivated 1 minute timeouts frequently, especially when being behind a company firewall).

In my opinion, instead of creating yet another new javascript engine every 2 years, Opera should adopt Webkit or Gecko and focus on what they're really good at: Developing cool new featues like Opera Link, the Turbo mode, the tab thumbnails, or yes, even Opera Unite. And get a decent AddOn interface, for God's sake, or even better, compatibility with Chrome Addons (shouldn't be an issue because they are not much more but a small extension to Userscripts) - that would at least give us decent Adblock.

Don't get me wrong, I still like Opera, and I'd really love to use it every day, but that just involves too much frustration right now.

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any invention in human history - with the possible exceptions of handguns and tequila” (Mitch Ratcliffe)

I use Opera to test functionality of my Web sites, but not for much other than that. I think it's a fine browser, but this old dog has been using Firefox for so long, anything else slows me up, trying to learn how to use it. If they took Firefox away from me, Opera would be second choice. Chromium is fast, but a bit too minimalist for me. Like I said, I'm an old dog and don't take well to new tricks. Well, other than LMDE, that is...